Guest lecture spotlights history, impact of Latino vote

By: Heather Nacht

Posted: 11/20/08

Nearly 200 students filled Morris Dailey Auditorium Wednesday night for a lecture featuring Luis Fraga that dealt with the
Latino influence in elections, both in the past and present.

Fraga's lecture, titled "So How Good Was Their Spanish: Presidential Campaigns and the Latino Vote 1960-2008," was the 22nd in the Don Edwards Lecture Series.

Throughout Fraga's lecture, he explained to the crowd how the Latino vote is having a greater impact with each election. He said the Latino impact on elections is not a new thing and could be seen as early as 1844, when James K. Polk won the presidency because of his commitment to Manifest Destiny and to annexing Texas, which eventually led to the end of the Mexican-American War.

Fraga said the Latino vote was an important part in John F. Kennedy's presidential victory in 1960. Kennedy's wife, Jackie, taped a campaign commercial in Spanish in attempts to gain Latino support.

Since Kennedy's attempt to appeal to the Latino voters, many others have incorporated their own strategies to gain Latino support, Fraga said.

He said the Voting Rights Act of 1975, which created voting ballots in second languages, helped encourage Latinos to vote, especially with constantly increasing amount of Spanish speaking immigrants.

"Latino influence on American electoral politics will only increase as their percent of the population grows," Fraga said. "They can be a determinative in affecting the outcome of elections for both parties."

The Latino vote can be a factor in elections depending on the distribution of other segments of the electorate, Fraga said. He said that in states that the white electorate vote is nearly equal, Latino voters can have a tremendous effect on the outcome, depending on who or what is a strong factor for the population.

Fraga used two commercials from President-elect Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain to show the importance of the Latino vote, as the candidates tried to gain Latino support in swing states such as New Mexico.

Fraga said California is a valuable state for elections because of its increasing Latino population.

"California sets a precedent," Fraga said. California ranks highly with regards to Latino representation and even more highly among Latinas and will only continue to positively affect future representation of Latinos in the United States, Fraga said.

After the lecture, some students remained for a brief Q-and-A session.

"It was interesting to learn that Latinas have a higher probability of holding office than Latinos in California," said Angelica Tovar, a junior political science major.

"I had no idea that since 1844, Latinos have had influence in politics," said Noe Orosco, a senior political science major. Orosco said this was his first Don Edwards lecture and that he thinks he will attend future lectures.

Previous Don Edwards Lecturers include Barbara Boxer, Erin Brockovich-Ellis and Norman Mineta.